BRIDGEPORT—On Saturday, June 1, Bishop Frank J. Caggiano will ordain three men as priests for the Diocese of Bridgeport. The Ordination Mass will be celebrated at 11 am in St. Augustine Cathedral. These three men were ordained as transitional deacons last year, May 19, 2018.
Peter Adamski
Peter Joseph Adamski, 65, one of four sons of the late Peter and Melda Adamski, grew up in Jersey City, N.J., and now considers Holy Spirit in Stamford as his home parish. He and wife, Kathy, were married over 40 years before she died in 2014. They have one son, John, who will be a lector at the Ordination Mass. His brother, Gary, will bring up the gifts.
Peter holds his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he graduated in 1976, and earned an MBA from Rutgers the following year along with his C.P.A. license. He has been a CFO with Johnson & Johnson Co., worked for Bausch & Lomb eye health products in Rochester, N.Y., and was the CEO of a successful foam manufacturing company in New Jersey. Peter is also a proud father and marathon runner of 40 years. He had thoughts of becoming a priest as a teenager, and discussed the possibility of a priestly vocation with Kathy shortly before she passed.
He completed his seminary studies at Pope St. John XXIII Seminary in Weston, Mass.
Father Adamski will celebrate his first Mass at Holy Spirit on Sunday, June 2, at 11:30 am. Msgr. Kevin Royal, Holy Spirit’s pastor, will be the homilist and concelebrant, along with Very Rev. Brian Kiely, rector/president of Pope St. John XXIII Seminary and Msgr. Peter Cullen, retired. Also joining in the celebration of Holy Mass will be Rev. Robert Hoffman, Diocese of St. Augustine, Rev. Brian Beal, Diocese of Columbus and Rev. Corey Bassett-Tirrell, Archdiocese of Boston, all of whom were from the Class of 2019 at Pope St. John XXIII Seminary.
“My love for the Lord has grown so very deeply during these past four years of formation,” said Deacon Adamski, “I have learned to surrender myself completely to doing His will and how to discern His will from the actions of the Evil One. I thank Jesus every day for calling me by name to His ministerial priesthood and ask to be filled with the graces necessary to minister to the members of His Holy Church in the years ahead.”
Christopher Ford
Christopher Joseph Ford, 29, was born in Bridgeport on October 2, 1989. The only boy in a family with three sisters, he grew up in Naugatuck, attending St. Francis of Assisi Elementary School and Naugatuck High School. His parents, Terence and Teresa Ford, live in Naugatuck and are members of St. Francis, and will be lector and gift bearer at the Ordination Mass, respectively.
He graduated from Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven in 2011. While attending Southern, he worked for candidates for the U.S. Senate and Conn. governorship. Upon graduation, he worked for Westminster College in New Wilmington, Penn., while obtaining a master’s degree in education from Kent State University in Ohio.
He entered St. John Fisher Seminary in 2015. Deacon Ford has earned his M.Div./S.T.B. degree from St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y.
Father Ford will celebrate his first Mass at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Naugatuck on Sunday, June 2 at 3 pm. Rev. Keith Chylinski of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Penn. will be the homilist and concelebrant, along with Rev. Michael Dunn, pastor of St. Gregory the Great in Danbury, Rev. John Kuzhikottayil, SDB, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi in Naugatuck, Rev. Norman Guilbert, pastor of Holy Family in Fairfield and Rev. Christopher M. Ford, pastor of Assumption Parish in Woodbridge.
“As soon as Mary said ‘yes’ to the angel Gabriel and received the gift of Christ, she immediately went out and sought her cousin Elizabeth,” said Deacon Ford, “In a way, that is the whole business of the priesthood,” he continued, “to receive this gift of a heart conformed to Christ and then spend a lifetime bringing His loving and merciful presence to a world so in need of it. St. John Vianney once called the priesthood ‘the love of the heart of Christ’ and the peace and the joy I feel at being called, unworthy as I am, to offer myself as an instrument of sacrificial love, is indescribable.”
David Roman
David Roman, Jr., 34, the first of three sons of David and Yvonne Roman, was born in Waterbury on April 18, 1985. He grew up in that city, he and his family attended St. Patrick Parish. Mrs. Yvonne Roman will bring up the gifts at the Ordination Mass.
He graduated from Western Connecticut State University in Danbury with a bachelor’s in history in 2008 and earned a master’s degree in education from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield.
He taught at St. Joseph School in Danbury, and served as youth minister at St. Joseph Parish and Notre Dame of Easton Parish prior to entering St. John Fisher Seminary in Stamford. He received his M.Div./S.T.B. degree at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Father Roman will celebrate his first Mass at St. Joseph in Danbury on Sunday, June 2 at 12 noon. Father Robert Kinnally will be homilist and concelebrant, along with Father Samuel Scott, pastor of St. Joseph in Danbury, Father David Franklin, associate pastor of St. Joseph in Danbury, Father Ray Sherba, priest in residence at St. Joseph in Danbury and Father Harry Prieto, associate pastor at St. Edward Parish.
“The everyday encounters of ‘Cor ad cor loquitur,’ of allowing the hearts of my brothers and sisters in Christ to speak to mine and vice versa has been a cornerstone in my life,” Deacon Roman shared. “Because it was there that I encountered the love of God,” he continued, “It was in the parishes that I walked alongside the young and the old in pursuit of the Gospel truth. And it was in prayer that God showed me the beautiful vision of where the center of priestly life is located: in the Most Sacred Heart of His Son Jesus. That all-encompassing, concrete love of God has been the catalyst and safeguard of my vocation. And undoubtedly my priesthood will forever bear the marks of those sacred moments.”
